


Sapling

by thejapanesemapletree



Series: Male Byleth and Female Byleth Twins AU: Max and Mini [3]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: (Ashe and Male Byleth say Trans Rights), (both dads are happy tho), Alternate Universe - Twins, Children of Characters, F/M, M/M, Male Byleth and Female Byleth Twin AU, Post-Canon, Trans Male Character, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 22:02:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29907726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thejapanesemapletree/pseuds/thejapanesemapletree
Summary: Sylvain asks for relationship advice....AU where Male Byleth and Female Byleth are twins, but now live with their husbands after the events of Three Houses.
Relationships: Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert/Sylvain Jose Gautier, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/My Unit | Byleth
Series: Male Byleth and Female Byleth Twins AU: Max and Mini [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2178354
Kudos: 2





	Sapling

**Author's Note:**

> Maxima is Female Byleth from my save who married Dimitri, and Regulus is Male Byleth from my boyfriend's save who didn't marry Seteth but wanted to. They are identical twins (Regulus is trans): Regulus is like normal Byleth with the Sothis powers and chill personality, while Maxima is very mean lmao
> 
> Ariel is Dimitri and Maxima's first child before their set of twins, Adrian and Alonso :>

_“On the bat's back I do fly… After summer merrily… Merrily, merrily shall I live now… Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.”_

Maxima shut the door to the nursery softly. Turning around, she saw a castle attendant in long robes running and flagging her down, and Maxima waited as she stopped and bowed before her.

The attendant held her long sleeves up to her mouth and whispered. “Lord Gautier requests an audience with you, Your Majesty.”

Maxima raised a brow. The attendant shook her head and lowered her sleeves slightly.

“He did not explain why. Just that it was urgent. He awaits in the main drawing room.”

The first pang of a headache pulsed in Maxima’s head. She thanked the attendant with a nod before navigating down the hall, following the route to the drawing room. The carved doors were shut, but she heard commotion inside, and she took a moment to compose herself before opening the doors together, creating a breeze into the room.

With the windows open, the small breeze did not do much to the already billowing curtains, but the noise did catch Sylvain’s attention. Crouched over the couch, he whipped his head towards Maxima, eyes instinctively blown wide. Maxima paused, nonplused, before she saw Ariel flailing on the couch. He took Sylvain’s distraction as a chance to wiggle off the couch, and he bounced on his legs and jolted for Maxima, giggling.

“Mama! Mama!”

Ariel curled around her legs. He tugged on her clothing while still giggling.

“Lord V tickles! Beware!”

Ariel never seemed to call anyone anything akin to their proper name except her, but she was not going to comment on it now. Instead, she looked from Ariel to Sylvain standing up from the couch.

“Hum… Have you come just to torment my toddler?”

Sylvain flushed across his face, and Maxima thought the color appeared funny with his hair, but she did not comment or smile. He tried to cover the expression by straightening and clearing his throat, poised something like his typical noble stature.

“No, no—I wished to speak with you. Alone.”

Maxima pursed her lips. She then looked to Ariel clinging to her clothes.

“How alone?”

Sylvain jolted slightly before clearing his throat again. “Oh, Ariel can stay.”

Maxima had tea and treats called into the drawing room, and while she waited for the attendant to fix the serving table, she laid a blanket across the couch and placed Ariel upon it with his bag of string and half-finished bracelet. When he was not intentionally excited, he remained fairly mild and quiet, so Maxima did not fear leaving him to his crude weaving nearby. When the tea was served, Maxima bid the attendants to depart so she could join Sylvain at the table with just the two of them as he wished.

Maxima saw the tension in Sylvain’s shoulders as he stared into his tea, but she said nothing as she mixed her cup with cream and sugar. Briefly, Maxima wondered if after his academy days, Sylvain had found some peace away from her when she no longer had her unforgiving authority to lord over him, and if that peace was crushed after the war when she became the queen of Faerghus and again his superior. Maxima had little time to ponder the idea as Sylvain folded his hands on the table.

“Well…”

Maxima looked to him, but Sylvain did not lift his head. Rather, he squeezed his hands together and stared at them.

“The thing is…” Sylvain sounded strained. “Ashe…”

Sylvain paused. Maxima thought of Ashe sitting at his place within the lords’ table, overseeing House Gaspard like his adopted father had years ago. Maxima knew that Ashe and Sylvain were intertwined in a not-so-secret romance since their academy days, and she supposed she should not have been surprised that they had continued it even as Ashe claimed his noble title just over two years prior. Why Sylvain had come to her with any type of relationship worry, however, she could not fathom.

Sylvain answered her query when he swallowed and finally continued. “Ashe… Ashe is with child.”

Sylvain spoke so quietly, utterly unlike his old bragging of romantic conquests in the academy. A beat passed, and Maxima lowered her teacup to the saucer.

“I don’t understand.”

Sylvain released a breath, and he ran a hand through his hair before looking up to Maxima, almost pleading.

“Your brother, Professor Regulus—no, Archbishop Regulus—is like that, yeah? Where he’s not entirely what he seems.”

Another moment passed. Then, Maxima nodded.

“Ah.” She picked up her teacup again. “I see.”

Sylvain exhaled, but Maxima was not certain if it was from relief or agitation. Sylvain rested his forehead on the table, more in the manner of a child than a noble.

“I just don’t know what to _do…”_

Maxima took a sip of her tea, leaving Sylvain as he was across the table. She placed the cup down again and dipped a cookie in it before speaking, swirling the milky mixture with the stick-shaped treat.

“If you came to me seeking easy advice, that is not what you will receive.”

Sylvain whipped his head upwards. Maxima ignored her tea momentarily to glare his way, fiercely, and Maxima saw that ingrained shiver of terror roll down his spine.

“You should be speaking with Ashe, not me.”

“I have!” Sylvain straightened defensively. “I mean—I have, Your Majesty.”

Maxima did not understand the sudden formality, especially as Sylvain followed it by slumping in his chair. If Ariel had acted in such a way, Maxima would have reprimanded him, but Ariel paid no attention as he continued to weave nearby, content in the comfortable couch cushions.

“We talked about it the day he told me,” Sylvain explained from his cockeyed position. “Trust me—I wouldn’t have gone running off to seek any guidance before his.”

That actually impressed Maxima slightly, and she nodded once before taking a bite of her cookie. She chewed fully and placed the cookie on her plate before speaking again.

“And?”

“Oh…” Sylvain sat up, realizing he had to tell more. “I’m not unhappy about it, if that’s what you’re wondering, and Ashe seems excited—nervous, of course, but excited. Ever since the war ended, Ashe has been training his younger sister alongside him to oversee House Gaspard in his absence, but…”

Sylvain’s eyes fell back to his tea. Maxima wondered if he stared at his own reflection and saw how melancholy his eyes looked, like a seafarer’s wife gazing out to a storm.

“Even so, is it right to ask him to join my household? Ashe tried so hard during the academy to keep his—ah— _difference_ a secret, and now I’ve gone and risked that, and I don’t want to risk it more.”

Sylvain sighed. Surprisingly, it touched Maxima, like a cold virgin snow on her heart, enough that her eyes softened.

“I see,” she repeated. “You want to marry him… How sweet.”

Sylvain caught the tenderness, but he did not raise his wide eyes fast enough to see Maxima’s gentle gaze before it hardened again. Maxima locked their eyes like that, like a predator and prey, and rested her hands on the table afront her teacup.

“You are taking responsibility, and for that, at least, I am impressed,” she explained. “It shows me that you have grown from who you once were.”

Sylvain flushed as before, but Maxima did not allow him to drop his eyes. She leaned forward, almost like she were staring beyond his amber-colored irises into the target center of his heart.

“As I told you before,” she continued, “I do not have an easy answer for your predicament. Love, relationships—they are different for each person, so the only one who can truly know what is best for you is Ashe and yourself. If I were you, I would go and ask Ashe how he wants to proceed—if it is even so important that he reveals his secret in order to have a child legitimized into your household or not. This is a situation bigger than yourselves, on account of you both being nobles, but nevertheless is a situation only you can remedy.”

Maxima huffed as a conclusion, and she broke their gaze. She dunked the last half of her cookie into her tea, and the pause gave Sylvain enough time to catch his wits, and he closed his mouth and shook his head.

“Maxima—Your Majesty,” Sylvain stumbled over his words. “I came to you not just because of your brother, but you are also the only person I know who has kids. I know we are not on the friendliest of terms—not since that incident in the academy quad, oh, _Goddess—_ but, well, what if Ashe has twins or something like you did? What then?”

Maxima had the urge to chuckle at his panic, but she repressed it to remain placid. She raised the last bite of cookie to her lips.

“Then, Ashe will be in twice as much pain,” she sighed. “I know that best.”

Sylvain made a strangling noise. That did catch Ariel’s attention, enough that he cocked his head, but Maxima made only a small note of it as Sylvain composed himself again, her cookie finished.

“However…” Maxima added. “If my advice is not sufficient to you, you both can ask my brother when he arrives to visit at the end of the month. I’m sure you can keep your secret until then.”

Considering how well they kept their relationship a secret, with Sylvain dramatically soliloquizing with Ashe outside his door and Regulus having to poke his head out to check on them, she spoke her last words with a small prayer. Her assurance seemed to ease Sylvain, however, with his shoulders relaxing and breathing level. Ariel hopped from the couch, and Maxima watched as he ran over, hand outstretched.

“Lord V! Lord V!”

Ariel hit Sylvain’s legs hard enough that the table rattled, but Sylvain only jolted as Ariel’s front half wiggled around in his lap. Maxima saw his clenched fist held aloft above the table and the bracelet within it: honestly more knots than weaving, but finished.

“For you!”

Sylvain blinked, then gingerly took the bracelet. Maxima’s lips twitched at the thought that in many ways Ariel, as the crown prince, was and would be Sylvain’s superior as well, but she merely sipped tea as Sylvain fought the bracelet onto his wrist.

“Really?” Sylvain smiled down at Ariel. “It’s amazing! Thank you.”

Ariel’s wiggling intensified, and he chatted quickly to explain why he chose each color, and Sylvain’s eyes went wide, but he just nodded along. A knock sounded at the door, and Maxima turned in her chair as it opened a crack, Dimitri stepping partially inside.

“Am I interrupting, beloved?”

The table rattled again as Ariel whipped away from Sylvain, racing for the doorway. Dimitri stepped fully into the room to catch Ariel before he could collide with anything, lifting him in one fluid motion as he squealed.

“Didi! Didi!”

Dimitri carried Ariel around the middle as he walked towards the table, more like lifting a troublesome piglet than a child, but Maxima knew that Ariel liked it as he laughed and wiggled. Maxima saw Sylvain flush as he fumbled for excuses, but Maxima smoothed it over as she turned back in her chair, picking another cookie.

“Not at all,” she hummed. “Sylvain just caught me in the hall after I finished putting the twins down for their nap, and he wanted to know what age we planned to start Ariel’s lance training.”

Sylvain’s eyes flicked to her, in wonder at the believable lie she told with her usual blank expression. Dimitri hummed in return and placed his free hand on Ariel’s head, which only made him wiggle faster.

“Ariel is still very young, so we have only discussed it briefly.” Dimitri nodded once. “It will certainly be a few years.”

Dimitri began to chat to Sylvain about other things, like the memories of their own lance training under his father and then Lord Rodrigue. Maxima munched away on her cookie, eyes closed and leaning her chin on her palm as she half-listened, knowing at least, for now, she had cooled Sylvain’s worries and his secret remained safe.


End file.
